By Jace Riley ’16
THE ROUNDUP

You find yourself standing in front of a masked man pointing a thin weapon at you.

He lunges forward trying to hit you, yet you manage to parry his attack and strike him.

This is what a fencing match is like. Two men or women try to land a blow on the opponent first.

Calvin Liang ’15 has been fencing for just around nine years, and he participates internationally in the Cadet Sabre group. However, he has competed nationally in all of the groups.

“I kind of went around trying a bunch of sports here and there,” Liang said. “Then I went into fencing and I didn’t suck at it so I went with it.”

Fencing has been at every modern Olympic Games.

The sport has three categories based on weapons. The three weapons an athlete can use are a foil, a sabre and an épée. The weapon groups are then put into gender and age groups.

Liang said that he has won around 75 tournaments in his career. The biggest tournament was the World Championship in 2012.

“I just know that he is really good, and that he travels nearly almost every weekend,” said J.J. Good ’15.

Good has been friends with Liang since freshman year.

Last year at the World Championship for fencing in Colorado Springs, more than 1,500 fencers competed in multiple categories based on age, gender and weapon.

“Hopefully I will do fencing for the rest of my life. I like being involved in the sport,” Liang said. “Competitively I would say at least another 10 years.”

Liang said he practices almost every day of the week to prepare for his next big tournament.